Μake us preferred on Google “Atypical work hours” seriously harm employees’ health, according to a new opinion issued yesterday by France’s National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES), which is calling for a reform of current French labor law. To define atypical work hours, the agency identified three main types: weekend work, long hours beyond eight hours a day and/or forty hours a week, and shifts between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. or between 7 p.m. and midnight.
According to the French agency, atypical work hours affect between 55% and 75% of the working population, mainly employees, civil servants, self-employed workers, farmers, shop owners, laborers, nurses, caregivers, salespeople, cashiers, maintenance workers, home care aides, bakers, cooks, waiters, and others.
According to ANSES’s scientific director for “health and work,” there is “extensive scientific literature on the effects of night work on health, as well as on family and social life.”
Weekend work is also damaging to personal life, and, as studies show, to mental health, including depression and anxiety, and physical health, including disrupted sleep, pain, fatigue, musculoskeletal disorders, and accidents. Sleep debt, stress, and disruption to family life all build up over time. “You’ll recover less, get less restorative sleep, with consequences for your overall condition and your mental health,” explains ANSES’s scientific director, adding: “When you only see your spouse and children for a short time, when you can’t see your friends, this disconnection from shared daily rhythms damages your social and family life and can eventually affect your health.”
Atypical work hours “should be limited as much as possible,” ANSES concludes, noting that when they can’t be avoided, they should be better regulated, for example through some of the protections already provided for night work, such as medical monitoring and provisions for pregnant employees. A legal definition of atypical work hours would also allow for better prevention of occupational risks, ANSES adds.
